


Birds of a Feather

by friendlyneighborhoodjoshua



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Bisexual Eda Clawthorne, Eda Clawthorne's Curse, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Grudgby, Hexside Academy of Magic and Demonics, Lesbian Lilith Clawthorne, Team Captain Lilith, Witch's Duel, Young Eda Clawthorne
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28837866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friendlyneighborhoodjoshua/pseuds/friendlyneighborhoodjoshua
Summary: Years ago, Hexside Academy of Magic and Demonics found itself witness to the rise and fall of two young prodigies: the cocky, impatient, headstrong rebel Edalyn and her seemingly perfect "teacher's pet" of an older sister Lilith. The last four years of their time at Hexside would set the two sisters, once so close, on paths diametrically opposed to the other's.
Relationships: Alador Blight/Odalia Blight, Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne
Comments: 13
Kudos: 37





	1. Flocking Together

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! 
> 
> This is my first fic on AO3, my first Owl House fanfiction and my second fanfiction ever. I decided to write Birds of a Feather because I was disappointed at the relative lack of fanfiction set when Eda and Lilith's generation were young. (If you're a Harry Potter fan, you can probably guess I'm a Marauders fan.) I'll try and keep it canon-compliant whenever possible, so - when new episodes reveal more about Eda and Lilith's relationship - I'll do my best to incorporate that information into the lore of this series, WITHOUT retconning stuff too badly. I'm not quite sure how many chapters I'll write, but I want to do at least 15-20, at the minimum.
> 
> Atm, I plan to have chapters switch between perspectives. This first chapter is about young Lilith, so the next one will be about Eda. Third one will be about Lilith, and it'll probably keep swapping like that until the end.
> 
> Since Lilith is around 45 in canon, she's two years older than Eda, and the show is set in 2020, I decided that this series will cover Eda and Lilith from when the former is 12 to 16, and the latter is 14 to 18. So Eda is born in the equivalent of 1977 in our world, while Lilith was born in 1975. Also Eda's gonna occasionally reference Earth pop culture from that time period because she already likes to travel to Earth.
> 
> Last thing to note: there will be PG-13 level content in this story, if that bothers you.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

It was rather remarkable, Lilith Clawthorne thought, how much loathing Odalia Blight could hold in her gaze. Not surprisingly, Lilith avoided doing anything that could set the girl off, lest she face her “Basilisk Stare,” as her little sister Eda labeled it. That was why, despite being assigned to work as Odalia’s partner on an Invisibility potion, Lilith did not dare look up at her for longer than a glance at a time, much less try to talk to her, beyond describing her observations of the potion’s progress. For nearly the last hour, she’d held her head so as to stare into the Invisibility potion as she stirred it, steaming her glasses fierce. Odalia looked more like a blurry figure than anything through the streaked lenses, but at least holding her head like this prevented any conversation that could lead to an argument.

Luckily for Lilith’s sake, when she wasn’t loudly scratching down notes, the vague figure in front of her that was Odalia seemed wholly focused on sending the Basilisk Stare into the back corner of the room, at Eda. Lilith couldn’t see what her little sister was doing, but - after two weeks of class - she had a good enough guess: more likely than not, she sat tilting back in her chair, both hands resting lazily behind her bushy orange head, smirking casually at the ceiling. Indeed, she probably finished the assignment fifteen minutes earlier than every other pair and without writing down the teacher’s notes. Class was nearing its end but there was still enough time for the teacher to notice her state of nonchalance, head over, and ask a pertinent question about the assignment in a vain attempt to expose her as not listening.

Predictably enough, Lilith saw a tall figure, indistinct through the steamed lenses, saunter across her field of vision to her sister’s corner of the room.

“Ms. Clawthorne,” the figure said, “why don’t you explain to the class how the Invisibility potion differs from the Potion of Evanescence?” After two weeks, Lilith could picture his oily grin, used whenever he’d caught a student not paying attention, without seeing it.

“The Invisibility Potion makes your body completely clear instantly, the Potion of Evanescence takes longer to take effect,” Eda said, most likely with a lazy wave of the hand.

“Correct.” The scorn in those two syllables was evident. How dare a student this casual succeed in his class? It was an affront to his dignity.

Odalia seemed to agree. She scoffed, muttering about a ‘filthy, know-it-all brat’ under her breath, and practically ripped through her paper taking down notes with her griffin quil. Lilith winced instinctively, and nearly sent her glasses down her nose and into the potion. A moment of fumbling about with the hands later, the glasses were safe and sound in her hands. WIth a sigh of relief, she dared to clean them off on her robes and put them back on. 

Now, her glasses clean, Lilith could see that Odalia was directing the Basilisk Stare onto her. She gulped. All that fumbling about got Odalia’s attention.

“What is wrong with you? Why are you staring at me like that?” Odalia said, regal and disdainful. 

Lilith’s eyes ran to the floor. By way of an answer, Lilith choked out a few yelps.

“Well?” 

Lilith’s cheeks and neck burned. “Oh, I … uh … I was just … I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was - sorry, not what I was thinking, er, I mean, I wasn’t really … thinking about …anything … really, truly am sorry … Edalia, I mean … Odalia...” Her internal organs ran for cover. 

“Indeed?” Odalia’s eyes narrowed.

Lilith nodded her head, refusing to maintain eye contact. Darkly, Lilith internally laughed at how silly she must have looked to Odalia - all scarlet and pointy and shaky with her blushing face and neck and askew curls and lanky, trembling legs.

“Look me in the eye when I talk to you. It’s not becoming for someone of your stature to behave this way.” Trembling, Lilith forced the joints in her neck upwards, and - against all odds - met the Basilisk Stare head on. Odalia was a head taller, all prim and proper with her snobbish frown and tightly pinned lime green bun. Lilith wished she could stare at the ground again.

“You’re a perfectly brilliant girl, yet you grovel around me. Damn it all, I said to look me in the eye! You perfectly cooked our potion today - it’s a dark shade of lime green, just as our teacher instructed - so you’re clearly a talented student. Grow some backbone, it’s infuriating to see you act like this.”

Lilith blinked. In a decade of schooling at Hexside, this was the closest she’d gotten to receiving a compliment from Odalia. “T-thank you, Odalia, I’ll keep that in mind.” She even managed to stand up slightly straighter.

The taller girl nodded, still not smiling, and began to clear away the table. With that, Lilith felt her jaw unclench and let her shoulders fall. In spite of her still trembling shoulders, she felt the tiniest bit of pride - she had looked the Basilisk Stare dead in the eyes, without literally turning tail. That had to be worth something. 

“Well?” Odalia said looking up, still disdainful. “Are you going to stand there gaping like a fool, or am I going to clean all this up by myself?”

“O-oh! Right!” Lilith, again avoiding eye contact, scurried over to help.

The bell ringing (or, more accurately, screaming) minutes later signalled the end of the school day. Subsequently, the sounds of crashing footsteps behind her, followed by a sudden great weight smashing into Lilith’s back and sending her forward, signalled the beginning of what Lilith dubbed “Eda time”.

“Any reason you’re choking me?” Lilith deadpanned. Eda’s arms and legs, now wrapped around Lilith’s neck and waist respectively, were remarkably strong, considering how scrawny they were.

Eda snorted. “What, I can’t hug my favorite sister in the whole wide world?” Her honking, pubescent voice sounded shockingly like that of a snaggle back's mating cry. The resemblance was uncanny.

“If you want to be nice to me,” Lilith said, blowing her sister’s orange hair out of her face, “you could consider getting off me and walking beside me, like a civilized person. Perhaps you’d find the change interesting and make it permanent.”

Eda wouldn’t, but at least now Lilith could tell Odalia that she’d tried to civilize her “wild” sister.

“Hmm … I could … but I’d rather you give me a Porcum Back ride. Hi ho, Silver!” Eda slapped Lilith’s face, nearly knocking her glasses askew.

Lilith rolled her eyes but shuffled out the classroom, straining quite a bit more than she expected under Eda’s weight. 

“So,” Lilith said, (Eda loosened her grip around Lilith’s throat, apparently gracious enough to let her older sister breathe) “are you ever going to explain why you decided to tackle me from behind? Also, who is Silver?”

Luckily for Lilith, consciously trying to maintain Eda’s weight on her back meant she paid little mind to the students most likely pointing and laughing at the spectacle.

“No offense, Lily, but you’re kinda weak,” Eda shrugged as best she could without falling off. “I expected you to go a little faster. Oh, and Silver’s some horse on an old show that humans called ‘Boomers’ watch. See, humans have this thing called television - ”

“Thanks for ignoring my question,” Lilith scoffed, huffing a little from the effort. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not very strong, so I can’t carry you, my bookbag and your bookbag. Get off my back.”

Eda jumped off, allowing Lilith to gasp for air, and circled to face Lilith while walking backwards. Her expression screamed ‘butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth.’

“Y’know,” Eda said, hands in her pockets, “if you’re gonna be in the Emperor’s Coven, you’re gonna need to put on some muscle. I’ve seen you get winded just going up and down the stairs at home. You’d probably break your arms tackling a criminal, like ‘RAGH! Curse my weak nerd arms!’”

Lilith wiped her forehead of sweat and smiled, relieved she could walk without an extra hundred pounds on her back. “Because, as a witch, my first resort when chasing a criminal would be to tackle them, instead of using magic. Very astute of you. Besides, would they rather have a four-foot-eleven girl that can be knocked over by a light breeze?” 

Considering Lilith could barely carry said girl more than a few feet, and was only three or four inches taller than her, she knew she was the last girl to be picking on someone for their lack of musculature. If she was going to join the Grdugby team, she had to start working out a bit...

“Hey,” Eda shrugged, still walking backwards, “I’m small but scrappy. And I’m not scared some prissy little rich girl’s gonna bite my head off if I look at her funny.”

Lilith’s smile dropped. She’d forgotten that the other people in class could see her quivering in Odalia’s presence. Titan, did the other students think she was a weakling too? “Heh … yeah…you’re right about that...”

Eda looked away, regretful … then tripped backwards into a trash can. Walking backwards apparently had its drawbacks.

“Little help?” The trash can echoed her cracking voice. Lilith did her best to tune out the students who stopped or slowed down to point and snicker, and pulled her sister out by the knees, helping her to her feet.

“You okay, there?” Eda said, knocking the trash from her robes and fiery mane as best as possible.

“Yeah,” Eda said, rather abashed. It was her turn for her face and neck to turn scarlet. “I, uh, I meant to do that!”

Lilith laughed, “I’m sure, you did, kid. They’re not gonna let you into the Emperor’s Coven if you’re a pathological liar --OOF!”

Something knocked Lilith forward and she fell, banging her forehead on the trash can in the process. Clenching her teeth in pain, she blinked stars out of her eyes and rubbed her throbbing forehead as she got to her knees.

A haughty voice - too deep and mature to be Eda’s - snapped, “Watch it, nitwit! Oh, it’s you.”

Eyes widening, Lilith gulped and shrunk away from Odalia. “Sorry Odalia…”

Eda tutted. “Yeah, we wouldn’t want to get in your way - you gotta go home and practice your spoiled bitch face!”

Odalia huffed. Privately, Lilith noticed that Odalia’s boots had heels six inches high, perfect for stomping her guts out if Eda sufficiently annoyed her.

“Edalyn … please,” Lilith hissed out the corner of her mouth. Eda brushed that aside, walking between Lilith and Odalia to smirk into the Blight’s face.

“Stay back, child,” Odalia snarled. “I admit that, despite being a howling layabout, you are a competent enough witch-”

“That’s a funny way to say ‘top of our class without even trying’, but okay.”

“You watch your mouth, girl.” The Basilisk Stare, dark and stony as Odalia’s voice, came out in full force. “I belong to a proud lineage of these isles’ most powerful and influential witches. I have a legacy to live up to, to work hard at fulfilling, and I cannot and WILL not let a -”

“Wow. I really don’t care.”

Lilith wanted to scream in exasperation. “Eda … please stop … I’m sorry Odalia, my sister means no harm…”

Odalia whipped her head, almost comically, to glare at Lilith. Lilith imagined her six inch heels stomping her throat in. She shut her mouth, her heart incessantly beating her ribs.

“You’re defending this disrespectful trash?” Odalia snarled, shoving Eda aside. She pointed at the bits of garbage still in Eda’s hair. “You’re defending this literal trash?” she repeated, a hint of haughty laughter on her lips. Slowly, too afraid to look away - lest she get kicked or blasted in the back - Lilith crawled away. “Every day, she insults the halls of our great academy. Strutting about the hallways, pranking us well-behaving, hard-working students, arrogantly acting as though she knows all. She’s a disgrace to us all.”

That was crossing a line. Despite herself, despite how her throat felt like burning sand and how her hands trembled and how her eyes threatened to water, Lilith slowly said, “My sister is not a disgrace.”

Odalia’s glare, remarkably, deepened and darkened. “Oh, really?” Her voice was no longer pitch-black and cold; rather, each syllable dripped with sarcasm. “My deepest apologies. I suppose you have some explanation for how a student two years younger than everyone else in our class hasn’t fallen behind, despite turning in all her homework a week late?”

Arms across her chest, Eda cackled, “Bold of you to assume I do the homework at all.” Typical of her, and rather unhelpful to the situation.

Regardless, Lilith straightened her spine and stood to her feet. Her voice quivered, but only slightly and she was louder than before. “Eda is not a cheater, if that’s what you’re saying.” She clenched her fist to stop her trembling. “She works just as hard as you do-”

“Just as hard as I do,” Odalia repeated, cutting her off. She looked ready to rip Lilith’s hair straight out of the scalp with her teeth. “I say again, Lilith: you are a highly intelligent and qualified young woman, yet you seem intent on debasing yourself and contradicting my every word of advice - when I told you to not fear me, I didn’t mean you should risk your neck standing up for a spoiled, little brat-”

“Stop it.” Her fear gone - but not for long - Lilith glared up into Odalia’s hard eyes. “You’re never going to say another thing about my sister. Not now. Not ever again.”

Eda nose and cheeks flushed. “Lily …”

“Is that a challenge, Clawthorne?” Odalia, now totally ignoring Eda, spat out Lilith’s surname as though it were a slur. Not a surprise, as she probably had practice hissing slurs at her “lessers”.

“You know what? Yes. Follow me to the Grudgby field.”

“What’s your game, Clawthorne?”

“...I challenge you to ... a witch’s duel.”

Eda gasped, her eyes as wide as giraffe’s hooves. “Lily...you can’t be serious about this!”

If Odalia was surprised by Lilith’s newfound boldness, she didn’t show it. Instead, she, almost casually, said, “I accept. Don’t worry, I won’t bind you in an Everlasting Oath; wouldn’t want a talented witch like you to lose your magic, or worse. But I will make you a deal - when I win, you will have to admit to me and yourself that your sister is not as talented as she pretends to be.”

Lilith faltered a bit, but steeled herself, just long enough to say, “If I win, you have to admit that Eda is actually smart and talented, and that I’m not as spineless as you think I am.”

“Hmph. I’ll be waiting for you. Take as long as you need to prepare, Clawthorne. You’re going to need it.” Growling, Odalia brushed past Lilith and through the front doors.

With that, Lilith realized she may have made a mistake.

“Holy crap Eda, why didn’t you stop me from doing that?!?”

For her part, Eda looked equally stunned. “Dude … you just challenged Odalia Blight to a witch’s duel …for me...”

Lilith blinked. She really had … the second Odalia started insulting her little sister, she’d stood her ground, albeit for just a moment.

Then, Eda seemed to put the thought aside and grinned wildly. “Don’t kick her butt too badly. I might wanna go at her when you’re done.”

Outwardly appreciating sentimentality never was Eda’s forte. Nevertheless, Lilith forced a nervous smile and said, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You better! Y’know … I think you can win on your own, but … if you want, I know a few tricks that can help …”

“No,” Lilith said firmly. “I … I probably did something really stupid, but … if I don’t beat Odalia on my own, without anyone’s help … I couldn’t live with myself. I got into this mess, I’ll get out of it. My way.”

Again, Eda was stunned. Then, she nodded resolutely. “Alright, Lily. Go get her.”

“...You think I can win?”

“Course you can, Lily. You’ve been working to join the Emperor’s Coven since we were little. You probably know way more about the other covens than her!”

Lilith somehow doubted that, but she nodded. Surprisingly, she did feel ever so slightly better - her sister’s faith in her, and her confident grin, were practically infectious.

“Alright. Let’s do this.”

With that, Lilith, feeling a strange combination of confidence and terror, led her younger sister out the front doors and around Hexside.

***

When they arrived, a small crowd had gathered along the sides of the Grudgby field. The field itself was empty, save for Odalia Blight, who sat back against the far goal post. Silently, Lilith motioned for Eda to stay back. The cheers and jeers of the spectators got Odalia’s attention; she looked up to see Lilith on the other end of the field.

“I admire your resolve, Clawthorne,” she said as she stood up, “along with your newfound courage. But you are beyond foolish if you believe you can best me in a duel. I’ve taken private lessons with the Boiling Isles’ top duelists for six years. I am on track to be valedictorian and to join the Emperor’s Coven when I graduate.”

So much for Eda’s assumption that Odalia only knew Potions magic.

The two witches met in the center of the field, ten feet from one another.

“Lilith, this is your last chance to back out.”

Lilith, wearing an impassive mask to hide her terror, responded, “Say whatever you want, Odalia, you can’t scare me.”

Lilith knew she was a terrible liar. Odalia seemed to know too, given her tiny smirk.

“To win, I have to knock you unconscious or make you surrender. Understood?”

Lilith nodded.

“Very well.”

Odalia shot a pink fireball. Lilith ducked and shot a stream of acid. Odalia blocked it with water.

Lilith shot a blue fireball before Odalia’s feet. The dust cloud covered her next move: she made a tiny blue flame in her right and a large blob of water in her left. Moving the two close to another, she waited until the water boiled.

When the dust cleared, she threw the boiling water at Odalia. Odalia sidestepped seconds before being scalded.

“Impressive, Lilith,” she said, her expression unreadable. Behind her, the audience roared its approval. “Very creative …” The water had landed and made a puddle behind Odalia. That could be helpful ...

Lilith swung acid at Odalia’s face. She summoned an abomination which blocked it. The abomination charged at Lilith, who circled around it. She sent a fireball at Odalia and it, keeping them off balance.

The puddle was now in between Lilith and Odalia’s abomination.

The abomination leapt over it, and Lilith got out of its way. Odalia shot another fireball at Lilith’s face. She blocked it with her own fire and retreated. Odalia followed her. Good.

When Odalia reached the puddle, Lilith drew a circle. The mud turned to ice and rose to her neck. Odalia was frozen in place, from her foot to her neck. Heart pounding, Lilith shot a massive fireball that destroyed the abomination.

The audience screamed and cheered even louder.

“Hell yeah Lilith!” Eda screamed, jumping up and down. “Take her down hard!”

Smirking, Lilith said, her voice stronger and more confident than ever, “Surrender, Odalia. You’ve lost.”

Odalia laughed. “I wouldn’t count on that.” With effort, she drew a circle with one hand, and an abomination a foot taller than her smashed the ice with a single punch, freeing her.

Lovely.

“That was a rather impressive elusion, I must admit,” Odalia said. A few hairs had come out of place and she looked slightly winded, but still confident. “However, I hope that’s not the only trick you have up your sleeve.”

Elusion. Illusion.

A rather weak pun, Lilith noted, even as she chuckled to herself, but a rather effective idea.

With a twirl of the finger, Lilith created fifteen copies of herself.

“You were saying?” sixteen Liliths chorused.

As Odalia gaped, each Lilith bunched together, mixing themselves up, then created a blue fireball.

Lilith then was seized with another idea. Sixteen Liliths boasted, “Think you can block all sixteen of these?”

“Damnable fool. You think I don’t know that only one of them is real? The others will just pass through me harmlessly.”

“Lucky for you, then?” they called out. “You couldn’t handle sixteen real fireballs.”

A brazen, obvious, arrogant bluff. Mentally, the real Lilith slapped herself. Was this the best idea she could’ve come up with?

“Oh? Well then, if you’re so confident now that I’m weak, why don’t I show you exactly how skilled I am? I’ll deflect every single fireball, real or fake, you can lob at me!”

…

…

This was the girl who had the nerve to refer to Eda as arrogant?

Odalia turned to her abomination. “Abomination, find the real Lilith! I’ll handle the fireballs.”

True, fifteen fireballs were illusions, but choosing the real one was hardly an easy task when sixteen were sent at you all at once, at different altitudes and different directions.

Odalia ducked and dodged and blocked, again and again. Good, she was distracted. Lilith wrapped the charging abomination in thick vines, squeezing it tightly -

Something thick and sticky crashed into Lilith’s chest, sending her flying into the goal post. Squinting her eyes open, she saw it was … purple?

Grinning maliciously, Odalia drew a circle in the air, and that goo wrapped around her. Lilith’s copies disappeared.

Abomination material. Odalia was going to suffocate her.

The crowd was silent.

“You’ve fought well,” Odalia said. By now she was soaked with sweat, her robes slightly singed from just barely blocking the real fireball. “Extraordinarily well. You’re perhaps the second best duelist at the school. But you are not my superior. This is a move I pioneered myself: as long as I keep my finger pointed at the sky like this, the abomination matter will continue to wrap around your body. If you do not surrender, I will let the matter strangle you into unconsciousness. Obviously, I will not kill you, but OW OW OW!”

Lilith had shot a light spell into Odalia’s eyes. Odalia covered her eyes with her hands. The abomination material dropped. Reaching deep inside herself, Lilith summoned dozens of vines, wrapped them into a massive fist, and punched Odalia across the field into the other goalpost.

“You talk too much,” Lilith deadpanned. Silently, she noted the line was rather Eda-esque. A witch from the Healing coven ran from the audience and touched Odalia’s neck.

“She’s going to be fine, she’s just unconscious!” the witch said. “Lilith Clawthorne is the winner!”

Lilith Clawthorne had just done the impossible.

The entire audience exploded. Eda was the first over and all but tackled Lilith with a hug. As the Healing witch brought Odalia back to consciousness, the audience surged forward - the crash of their whoops and cheers threatening to deafen Lilith - grabbed the two sisters and carried them on their shoulders.

“I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU YOU COULD DO IT!” Eda was practically beside herself, a few tears going down her face as she squirmed and danced in excitement in the spectators’ arms. “She didn’t believe she could do it!” she said to the audience lifting them into the air. “But she kicked Blight’s ass! WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

You know what? Eda was not without flaw, but right now … she was totally right.


	2. Broken and Mended

If nothing else, Edalyn Clawthorne’s seven previous years of instruction at Hexside have made something perfectly clear: she must be kept far, far away from anything fragile. Otherwise, disaster would ensue. 

Despite being Eda’s older sister, however, one Lilith Clawthorne seemed unaware of this axiom. Otherwise, she would have taken much better care of her glasses. Indeed, for all the praise Lilith’s teachers bestowed on her for being oh so responsible and self-sufficient, it wasn’t uncommon for her to put down her lenses - usually after cleaning them on her shirt - and walk away. Unlike other fragile objects on the Boiling Isles, however, glasses could not be fixed by magic - this was by design, as the capitalists who designed lenses were more than willing to line their pockets by taking advantage of their buyers’ carelessness. If a young teenager broke their glasses by accidentally stepping on them, dropping them, or because their friend used them as target practice for a fireball, that was an extra 80 to 120 snails in a glasses manufacturer’s pocket.

Luckily for Lilith, however, her glasses had never been abandoned for more than a few minutes at a time, much less broken: after walking into some blurry object that she swore was further away than it actually was, Lilith would realize her mistake and run to reclaim her spectacles. Normally, the worst consequences of Lilith’s forgetfulness were purple, sore shins.

Today was not normal.

As it were, Eda lounged on her bedsheets, twiddling with Lilith’s glasses in her right hand. A few minutes ago, Lilith had taken her glasses off to clean them - bits of Abomination material still clung to the lenses from her duel with Odalia earlier that afternoon - when a sound in the other room distracted her and she put the glasses down to investigate. Eda, seeing an opportunity for shenanigans, had swiped the spectacles and dashed up the stairs to her bedroom.

It was only upon reaching her bed that Eda asked herself something: what hex would she use on them? An illusion spell, perhaps to make Lilith see in all black as long as she wore them? Perhaps, but that was a bit bland. Turning them Invisible, and forcing Lilith to go on a scavenger hunt to find them? That would be more unique, and Eda had snagged some Invisibility potion from class today, but there was no guarantee that Lilith would go through the hunt - more likely, she’d find some way to force Eda to give up its location. Besides, if they were invisible, there was the chance that either Eda or Lilith could accidentally step on them-

Eda’s thoughts were interrupted by the oh so gentle sound of her sister banging her fists on the door.

“Edalyn Clawthorne, open this door!”

Lilith had, accurately, guessed where her glasses were.

Stuffing the lenses into her robe pocket, Eda forced herself to look as casual as possible. The moment Eda magically unlocked the door, Lilith flung it open.

“Uh … hey Lily,” Eda said, wearing a mask of bemused concern. “What’s up?” Inwardly, she cringed. Lilith had known her for twelve years - she could read a lie from Eda a mile away.

Sure enough, Lilith rolled her eyes. “You’re not funny, Edalyn. Stop trying to be funny and just hand over my glasses.”

“Glasses?” Eda hoped she looked sufficiently bewildered. She probably didn’t. Shifting her weight, she said, “I haven’t touched your glass-”

*CRACK*

Eda didn’t need to feel the tiny glass shards stabbing into her thigh to know what she had done. Her false bemusement was gone, killed and reincarnated into unadulterated terror. She would not look up - she knew that Lilith’s expression would be a million times worse than Odalia’s Basilisk Stare, and she’d rather not be incinerated by her piercing glare.

“Eda,” Lilith said slowly, “did you just sit on my glasses?”

Against her better judgment, Eda chanced a glance at Lilith’s expression. She was beyond anger, deeper than it. She was shock and disappointment, personified.

“L-lily...You know I …wouldn’t … do it on purpose...”

“You did.” Lilith moved out the doorway and closer to Eda. It shouldn’t have been possible for Eda’s scarecrow of an older sister to be intimidating, yet Lilith - gangly, awkward, and bushy-haired - sent Eda crawling away across the bed whimpering. “You sat on my glasses. You just pissed 100 snails down the drain because … you just couldn’t help yourself!”

Eda’s breathing was ragged and rough, scratching already tender nerves. Out of desperation, a tiny voice in her said, ‘Perhaps only the lenses are damaged?’ With that, she fished the cracked lenses out of her pocket and held them up in a trembling hand. “S-see, Lily? It’s not that bad! The lenses are broken, yeah, b-but you can still use them, right?”

With that, one of the lenses popped out and shattered on the hardwood floor. Lilith’s face was a brilliant shade of purple.

“L-lily …”

“Don’t ‘Lily’ me, Eda. I fought the richest girl in school today because of you, because she said that you were an irresponsible brat. And then …” Lilith stopped to rub her temples. “And then, the moment that I turn my back, you steal my glasses and ... I’m surprised at you, Eda. I thought you cared about me more than…” Lilith sighed, growling into the palm of her hand. Again, there was no anger. There was only … exasperation, surprise, hurt...

They were leagues worse.

Regardless, Eda was still privately shocked when her eyes started to leak. She knew she’d look rather pathetic to Lilith, blubbering the moment she’d received consequences for her behavior. She choked out, “Lilith … I’m serious, I didn’t mean…”

Terrifyingly, Lilith laughed. “Oh? You didn’t mean to break my glasses?” Each word dripped with cold sarcasm. “Is that what you were going to say?”

Eda’s lips were sewn shut. Her head throbbing, she gave a quick nod.

Lilith scoffed. “That’s great. Just … great to know that you didn’t mean to throw away 100 snails. Instead, you were so stupid that you did it on accident. Well done.”

Eda looked away, wiping away a hot tear that rolled down her cheek. When she heard a foot step, she turned just enough so that she could see without making the tear-stricken side of her face totally visible. Lilith had left the room and nearly gone into the hall when Eda, her voice cracking, said, “Lilith, I’m sorry.”

Lilith’s glare froze Eda to the spot. “Good to know. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to call mom and dad. Glasses aren’t exactly cheap, so I’ll need them to pay for it. Of course, they won’t be back from their trip for another week, so I’ll be bumbling around like an idiot until then. Not that you seemed to consider that.” She slammed the door shut without another word.

For the next fifteen minutes, Eda sat on her bedsheets, her knees against her face, forcing herself not to cry. Inwardly, she cursed herself. Lilith hadn’t even been as angry as she should have - she had scarcely raised her voice - and she’d been on the wrong end of harsher, angrier rants for her behavior. Yet here she was, curling up in a ball, on the verge of sobbing.

She sniffed. Crying wouldn’t do anything. The characters in her comic books wouldn’t act like this …

Comic books. They came from the human world. As far as Eda knew, she was the only person at Hexside with any access to Earth, so those books might as well be solid gold. And the human world had plenty of other “artifacts” that other witches would give their bile sacs for.

Out the corner of her eye, a small test tube, filled with a dark lime green liquid, glinted on her desk. The Invisibility potion. If she poured half on her, there would be just enough to last about three hours

***

This time of year, the woods at night were silent, save for the icy winds that cut into Eda’s cloak. She shivered, wrapping the cloth ever tighter around her body. Silently, she swore at her stupidity - in her haste, she’d left without grabbing a pair of mittens, which proved a rather foolish decision because she needed to hold out one hand, now stinging in the cold, to create a light spell. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to see.

With a pang of guilt mixed with a dash of self-deprecating humor, Eda realized she could relate to her sister on that front.

Luckily, however, Eda had made this particular journey enough times that she could find her way without thinking about it, even in the darkness of the undergrowth. Indeed, she’d almost reached her destination - squinting, Eda could see a door, just a few yards away in the dark woods. Now it was time to use the potion. Eda uncorked the bottle and poured some of the liquid on her head. She looked down to her hands, only to see the forest floor instead. Her entire body, clothes and all, had disappeared.

Grinning madly, she dashed over, flung the door open and found herself, once again, in the human world.

WIth a finger snap, she extinguished her light spell and stepped forward. She was in a dark alley, somewhere urban. Even how late and how cold it was (Eda grit her teeth harder to stave off shivering), the streets were somewhat lively - throngs of humans in warm-looking hooded cloaks (called “coats”, if Eda remembered correctly) walked up and down the sidewalks, breath visible in the cold. Despite the cold, it was still an improvement over the dark forest, as a nearby building, with its bright blue and yellow Blockbuster front, rendered using a Light spell unnecessary.

Squinting her eyes, Eda found her final destination: a massive rectangular container, near the Blockbuster building.

Traveling to the human world while invisible, by now, was old hat for her. Bobbing and weaving around crowds of teenagers, fresh with video rentals of AKIRA or Lethal Weapon 2, at night, however, was not. Indeed, on previous visits to the human world, Eda had generally avoided large crowds, occasionally stealing a comic book or VHS tape for home. But cutting through and ducking around the humans was the fastest way to the trash can, and thus that was the path she resolved to take.

Fortunately, she reached her destination without major incident. Unfortunately, the stench of said destination almost sent her reeling back through the portal to the Boiling Isles at top speed.  
Eda gulped, steeling herself. Slowly, and while making sure to breathe through her mouth rather than her nose, she opened the lid of the container and let herself inside. This would all be worth it …

***

It wasn’t exactly an easy process. On the plus side, a drop of Invisibility potion was sufficient to turn most inanimate objects completely invisible for at least a few hours. Thus, Eda was able to establish a system - choose something relatively easy to carry but still valuable, turn it invisible, and carry it to the portal. On the down side, Eda had the build of a stick figure, which made the already unwieldy task of carrying boxy televisions past humans without getting caught all the more suspenseful. Her face hot, muscles screaming and breathing rapid, she was nearly caught more than once; at one point, she bumped into a woman with massive hair and jumped a foot away, almost crashing into a young man. She barely was able to scamper off without dropping and shattering her collection of glass bottles.

But, an hour into the dark, dank new morning, Eda had done it. The fact that her Invisibility potion had completely worn off scarcely mattered, now that she was on her end of the portal. She’d managed to drag her loot to a small clearing in the woods.

Drawing a circle in the air, she conjured up a table and a chair.

***

“Have you heard? Eda Clawthorne’s selling human artifacts after school!”

“What? No way!”

“I’m telling you, she gave me this flier! It tells us to meet at the clearing by the Belos Brook in the Dark Woods to buy her stuff! She said that she fought a garbage griffon with her own bare hands to get it!”

“No way!”

Luckily for Eda’s scheme, the average student of Hexside simultaneously had seemingly infinite interest in and practically nil knowledge of the human world. When class did let out that day, a large crowd of students, pockets bulging with snails, followed Eda cheering and gossipping about the unique artifacts had Eda slain the Jabberwocky for. (Admittedly, some students would retort that Eda had slain a garbage griffon, and still others retorted that they were both wrong and that she’d slain a giraffe. Consistency was not Eda’s strong suits when stretching the truth.)

When the students reached the clearing, Eda hopped behind the table and lounged in her chair, fingers steepled.

“Hello there, I see you checking out this little baby!” she said, voice booming as she held up a broken Game Boy. “This fella is a ceremonial object, sacred to humans. Their youth stare into its lit screen to enlighten themselves.”

“Wow!” said a cyclops. “I’ll pay you fourteen snails for it!”

“SOLD!”

That day proved to be the greatest sale in the history of the Boiling Isles. In less than half an hour, Eda sat on nearly five hundred snails, well over the necessary one hundred. As the last student walked away with a broken VHS tape, Eda jumped for joy, fiery mane swinging wildly in the afternoon light.

“Hell yeah! 500 snails! I did it! Woohoo!”

In her revelry, she almost missed someone clearing their voice. Flustered, she caught herself mid-jump, cleared her own throat, and saw Lilith, still without her glasses and sporting a rather nasty bruise on her forehead. Eda winced in sympathy and guilt.

“I, uh, heard you were having a sale today,” Lilith said, a bit awkwardly. She tried a wan smile. “Anything left?”

Eda looked away. She tried typical bravado, only for it to come out rather nervous and high-pitched: “Nah, I got something way better than any of that crap.”

“Oh?” Even now, Lilith couldn’t resist snickering slightly at Eda’s obvious nerves. Darkly, Eda realized she probably did deserve that, but regardless, she thrust her handfuls of snails.

“Exactly four hundred and eighty-three,” she mumbled, fascinated with the ground. “Enough to replace your glasses and to buy you something nice. A little something from your bratty little sister.”

Silence. Eda didn’t know how Lilith would react. Would she accept the gift? See it as a terrible attempt to ingratiate herself after screwing up badly? The answer probably lay in Lilith’s eyes, but looking to see Lilith’s expression was too scary, carried too much possibility of -

Eda’s face was now buried in Lilith’s crimson curls, her ribs nearly crushed by Lilith’s hug. The snails hit the forest floor as Eda wrapped her arms around Lilith.

“Edalyn … thank you,” Lilith said. With a gasp, Eda realized that a few drops had hit her shoulder. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am so, SO sorry I said what I said. I - I wanted to apologize when I woke up, but I couldn’t find you, and you were alway surrounded by other students at school … I’m so sorry, Eda, I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Lily … I’m sorry I broke your glasses in the first place. I promise you, it’s not happening again.”

Lilith gave a small chuckle. “Heh … I’ll hold you to that. I think any more bruises would cripple me.”

Eda’s heart leapt into her throat. Pushing slightly on Lilith’s shoulders, she knelt down on her left knee. Lilith copied her with her right, and Eda put her hands on Lilith’s face.

Eda recited the childhood chant: “With this spell declared, let the pain be shared.”

The skin on her forehead flared up for the briefest of moments. Eda opened her eyes to see that Lilith’s bruise had shrunk and turned a far less violent shade of purple.

“Eda … I …”

“Hey, it was nothing, Lily,” Eda gave her sister a pat on the shoulder as she stood up. “Now c’mon sis; let’s go get you some new glasses, so you don’t get an even bigger bruise on your face.”

Slowly, Lilith smiled. “Lets.”


	3. Griffy's Disappearance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the school mascot is kidnapped, it's up to Lilith, Eda, and Lilith's crush Francoise to go on a quest to bring the beast back home!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ... sorry this chapter was late; college is hectic af and I fell more than a week behind. I decided to post this now to give you something and tweak it (fix grammatical/spelling errors or awkward sentences) later, so sorry if this chapter is a bit sloppier than the first two. Also sorry that there is no Grudgby match like I promised Techcaliber, I was kinda tired and this chapter was already way longer than either of the previous ones. Otherwise, hope you enjoy!

" Lily … hey Lily … Boiling Isles to Lilith Clawthorne, Boiling Isles to Lilith Clawthorne …”

It was hopeless. Lilith was a million miles away from Edalyn, who’d resorted to snapping her fingers under her nose, being lifted into the air by screaming, cheering fans. She was Grudgby Team Captain Lilith Clawthorne of the Banshees - ooh, even the title sounded all grand and important - her arms were trembling with the behemoth of a trophy in her hands, and Francoise Tivrusky, a head taller than everyone else, was blowing her a kiss -

“Lilith!”

“Huh?” Lilith was back in the hallways of Hexside, heading towards the cafeteria and saw her sister staring at her with one eyebrow raised. A few students snickered as they walked past.

“Uh, yeah, what’s up?” she said quickly, her cheeks slightly heated.

“Wanted to know if you minded sitting somewhere else at lunch today. I made a new friend, but Odalia’s gonna be nearby, so fair warning.”

“Uh … sure.” 

It may have been two months since Lilith had beaten Odalia Blight in a witch’s duel, and Odalia had avoided a direct confrontation with either of the Clawthorne siblings since, but the Blight’s antipathy towards the Clawthorne sisters had not waned. Perhaps out of spite, she’d refused to work as Lilith’s partner in their Potions class before switching to the Abominations track. 

“Kinda wish she’d do more than bitch at us under her breath,” Edalyn said, hands in the pockets. “I want her to just snap and throw a fireball at me, you know?”

Lilith chuckled as they rounded the corner into the cafeteria. “Nah, can’t relate. See, I’m a normal person, so I don’t go around pissing people off so they’ll fight me.”

“I don’t piss random people off for no good reason!”

“So you had a reason for letting feral ghosts into the girl’s bathroom?”

“Uh, YEAH! That was the beginning of prank week! Besides, it was funny as hell too. Like, did you see the look on your face?”   


“Yes, Edalyn, I have the ability to see my own face at any time that I want. You’re very smart.”

“Smartass.”

Someone huffed. Lilith looked up to see Odalia Blight, sitting primly with a sneer, at the table in front of her. 

Wait. Where was Edalyn’s new friend-

“Hey Eda, Lilith,” said a fourth voice. This new voice was rather friendly, laid-back and, to Lilith’s horror and amazement, quite familiar. Gulping, Lilith turned to see Francoise Tivrusky, tall and athletic in her green Potion track uniform, walk around her to sit next to Odalia. Her black curls framed her smiling, dark brown face nicely.

“H-h-hey Francoise!” she managed, ducking her head so she couldn’t see her now crimson face. She sat down a little too quickly opposite Francoise, wincing a little in pain. Edalyn snickered as she sat next to Lilith. Neither Odalia or Francoise, thankfully, seemed to have noticed her embarrassment. That small victory was cause for celebration.

“S-s-so (was it getting hot in here?), how did you and Eda meet each other?” Dear Titan, her small talk was especially atrocious.

Francoise pushed a few loose hairs hanging in her face and smirked (meanwhile, Lilith’s heartbeat tripled in speed). “Bummed this nifty little gadget off of her,” she said, holding up some sort of orange box with a headset that humans used to play music with. “Figured anyone who could do something like that could hang out with me.”

Slight ego, but that was alright. That was fine. Cool, even. She was nicer (and a lot prettier) than Odalia, so it didn’t bother Lilith … where her thoughts repeating? How long had she been staring? Good Titan, was she drooling?

“Oh!” Given how a girl at another table jumped, that was loud. On the bright side, the corners of her mouth were free from drool. “That’s really cool!” This time, she managed to tone down her volume.

Francoise giggled, her perfect little lips in a perfect little smile. “Yeah, I guess.” Somehow, she lounged without a backrest on her seat. She could probably look laid-back and casual while hanging for dear life off of a griffon.

Scoffing, Odalia stood and said quite primly, “I need to go to my tutor. I shall be back before the end of lunch.” With that, she gathered her trash and walked off, heels clicking.

Again trying small talk, Lilith, aware of the blush creeping up her neck and to her face, dared to say, “Heh, what’s her problem-”

“Oh my TITAN, I’m so happy she’s gone!” With that, Francoise’s voice jumped up an octave, her gestures now wilder and less controlled. “Lilith, I saw your fight against Odalia and it was SO. FREAKING. COOL! Like, when you made water with one hand and fire with the other and you moved them together to boil the water and you THREW it at her, I was like, ‘Oh man, this girl is going places!’ You’re both just  _ so  _ badass and awesome, like you’re a total badass Lilith, and Eda, oh my Titan, tell me all about the human world!”

Francoise - laid-back, cool, popular Francoise - was bouncing up and down in her seat. Lilith was strongly reminded of a taller, browner Edalyn hopped up on that human drink … what was it called? Red Bull, perhaps? If her wide eyes and slightly open mouth were anything to go by, Edalyn was similarly shocked by the display.

Eventually, Edalyn choked out, “Well, that thing you’re holding is called a Walkman…”

“A … WALK - MAN?!?” Francoise gasped. “So this little guy can WALK?! I know, it’s like a palisman, isn’t it? Okay, after tryouts, can I come over to your place so you can tell me how to make this little fella walk?”

Eda blinked, but nodded her head in assent. Lilith, however, was focused on a single word that Francoise had just said.

“Er … tryouts?”

“Oh, yeah! I’m trying out for the grudgby team after school today! Been working on these guns all over summer!” She flexed a toned bicep. Somehow, she didn’t notice Lilith wiping the small amount of blood which dripped out her nose.

Then, without warning, Francoise shut her mouth, her shoulders relaxing as she sat down, all cool and haughty again. Before Lilith could process what had happened, Odalia, still refusing to look either Clawthorne in the eye, sat back down.

“Something amusing?” Odalia said, raising an immaculately trimmed eyebrow.

“Nah, nothing much,” came Francoise’s signature cocky drawl. There was none of the unabashed glee she’d shown moments agot. It was incredible, really, how quickly she could switch between laid-back, arrogant jock and innocent puppy dog. 

“Hmm.” Odalia didn’t seem to totally believe Francoise’s statement, but, before she could more directly contest her claims, the loudspeaker crackled to life, silencing the chatter across the cafeteria.

“ATTENTION STUDENTS,” it scratched. “THIS IS PRINCIPAL BUMP SPEAKING. THE GRUDGBY TRYOUTS AFTER SCHOOL ARE POSTPONED, DUE TO THE KIDNAP OF OUR MASCOT GRIFFY. I REPEAT, -”

No one in the cafeteria heard Bump’s repetition, thanks to the long groan nearly each and every student let out. Admittedly, Lilith was slightly relieved: trying out for the team was a far less intimidating notion when her crush wasn’t guaranteed to be watching her. However, judging by the deflated looks on Edalyn’s and Francoise’s faces, she seemed to be alone in this assessment.

“Ugh, this is so stupid,” Edalyn said. “I was looking forward to watching you kick ass on the Grudgby field, sis. Who’d kidnap a griffon, anyways?”

Odalia frostily snarled, “You’ve done so before, brat.”

Edalyn blinked. “Huh, yeah. Okay, who besides me would kidnap a griffon?”

Before Odalia could insult Edalyn further, Francoise, still seemingly in her “popular, casual jock” mode, jumped in with, “I dunno, maybe someone from a rival team? Like, Glandus High? Sounds like a prank they’d play to screw with us.”

“Perhaps, Francoise. Or perhaps the younger Clawthorne decided to play another one of her oh so amusing-”

Edalyn cackled. “Girl. You got your ass kicked by Lily here, and I could beat her in a witch’s duel with my eyes shut, so if you don’t want me to flatten you, why not mosey along before I turn your kneecaps inside out?”

That stung. Lilith knew that Edalyn was a powerful witch. Potentially, the strongest of their class. Definitely superior to her. 

That didn’t matter. Lilith wasn’t jealous that her sister was stronger than her. Definitely not. Not even close.

No, she just … she just hated how Edalyn  _ knew _ she was stronger than Lilith, and would point out the difference in strength so casually. 

Yes, that was it. Jealousy would be a bad thing. Not that that was a problem, since Lilith wasn’t jealous. Just … frustrated.

Yes.

For her part, Odalia narrowed her eyes, then, amazingly, seemingly did as Edalyn had suggested. She gathered her lunchbox and stomped out.

Francoise leapt over the table and hugged Edalyn. “Oh my TITAN, thank you again!” she said, tightening her grip and nearly squeezing the smaller girl into unconsciousness. “I can’t stand her dumb attitude, it’s  _ SO  _ annoying, you know?”

“T-that’s great!” Edalyn croaked. Despite herself, Lilith chuckled at how Eda’s eyes seemed on the verge of popping out their sockets. Again, Edalyn tried, “Francoise…”

“Oh! By the way, call me Frankie. All my friends do.”

“Frankie, I need air.”

“Oops! Sorry. Tee hee!”

As Edalyn gulped down cool air, Lilith chuckled again. “See, now you know how  _ I  _ feel when you tackle me from behind and grab me by the neck. Not that fun, is it?” "

“I mean … you’re right, but I’m still gonna do it to you. Just to screw with you.”

Lilith rolled her eyes, then said, “Whatever. That’s the least of our worries: Odalia’s never backed down from a threat like that before. What do you think she’s going to do?”

“Pfft …” Edalyn lazily waved a hand. “You worry too much, she’s probably gonna whine to Principal Bump about how unfair I’m being to her or something. No big deal.”

***

“SHE SAID WHAT?!?” Edalyn screeched. Lilith, sat next to her, winced in sympathy for her younger sister, as Edalyn must’ve torn the inside of her throat to bloody shreds with that yell. 

Bump rubbed his temples, the air of a man who had far too much to deal with etched in every wrinkle of his face. “I know this will be a struggle for you, Ms. Clawthorne, but please: calm yourself. As I was saying, Ms. Blight told me that she believed you were somehow involved in kidnapping Griffy. And, given your … spotty relationship with authority and the rules, and the unparalleled raw power you’ve displayed as a witch, I’m afraid your record is against you.”

Lilith’s heart dropped. Bump saw Edalyn’s power too. Er, not that Lilith minded that her sister was so powerful. Sure, it was frustrating that, despite relying primarily on either instinct or trial and error, Edalyn created more impressive potions or larger fireballs or used spells more creatively or what have you than her older sister. Sure, it was frustrating that Lilith’s superior test-taking skills and ability to sit down without setting something on fire was only impressive towards teachers. 

Lilith was fine with having a sister more powerful than her. She just … wanted to prove herself alongside her. Yes. Yes, that was it. Again, she wasn’t jealous. No, that would be wrong.

Edalyn glared deeper into Bump’s face. “You have no proof that it was me!”

Unmoved, Bump simply shrugged. “Quite true. Indeed, there is no smoking witch’s staff which implicates you in this act. Normally, I’d take a student’s unfounded and unsourced accusation against another with a grain of salt. However … the trouble here is that, for all intents and purposes, your colleague comes from a very powerful and influential family in Bonesborough, and you, Ms. Clawthorne, have been a thorn in the side of this institution’s establishment for years.”

Edalyn clenched her fists, her teeth gritted. Quickly, Lilith slipped her left hand over Edalyn’s right fist. Instantly, although she was still clearly angry, Edalyn calmed. “What do you mean?” Though a bit curt, her words weren’t nearly as furious as they could have been.

Standing, Bump turned to look out the window, where Blight Manor stood many miles away. “Let’s say that Ms. Blight goes to her parents and tells them that Hexside’s greatest troublemaker decided to kidnap Griffy and hide him, then lied about it. The elder Blights, I regret to inform you, already have something of a grudge against your older sister, for defeating their daughter in a duel.”

Despite herself, Lilith spoke up. “How did you-”

Bump chuckled darkly as he sat down, steepling his fingers. “You underestimate how quickly gossip can spread amongst teenagers. Regardless, that’s not the point I’m getting at: the Blight parents donate enough money to our school to cover a third of all our school’s costs, and thus, against my wishes, have a great deal of influence over the fates of many of this campus’ students. They could, potentially, view your latest prank as the last straw in a long train of abuses, and leverage further financial support on your expulsion. Edalyn, you may be … let’s be frank here, you are an astounding pain in my ass and in the ass of each and every teacher cursed with working with you, but I see no point in expelling you.”

Lilith took the initiative: “So if we prove that Edalyn is innocent and return Griffy home, she’ll be safe from being expelled?”

Bump, although surprised that Lilith had spoken up, nodded. “Indeed. I’d offer my own services, but the teachers and I will be far too busy providing PR to the parents to help. Besides Edalyn, this will be good practice for when you’re in the Emperor’s Coven.”

No.

Lilith’s eyes started to water. Didn’t anyone remember that  _ she _ wanted to work with the Emperor’s Coven as well? She was a strong witch too, wasn’t she? Why couldn’t this be Lilith’s quest to help her sister, Edalyn’s chance to practice for the Emperor’s Coven?

“You’re going to need my help,” Lilith said, more to convince herself than Edalyn. “Don’t worry. I’m going to find out who stole Griffy and clear your name, Edalyn.”

Judging by her quizzical eyebrow, Edalyn seemed more confused at her sister’s sudden influx of confidence than worried about the prospect of being expelled. However, she smiled and nodded.

“Alright, sis. Let’s kick names and take ass!”

“Language, Ms. Clawthorne.”

“Bro, you swore just two minutes ago!”

“Yes, well, I’m an adult who has graduated from the highest witch university on the Boiling Isles, and not an underage teenager seemingly driven to age her teachers by three decades.”

“...So what you’re saying is, once I graduate from this dump, I can cuss you out all I want?”

“Ms. Clawthorne…”   
  
“Alright, alright, I’ll keep it PG-13 whenever I’m around you.” Bump was unamused. “Oh, okay, PG it is!”

With that, she took Lilith’s hand and led them out of Bump’s office.

Francoise, leaning against the wall outside the office, turned and uncrossed her arms as the door closed.

“What’s up?” she said, all energy and excitement. Her eagerness was infectious, as Lilith, for once not paralyzed with that stupid crush of hers - she only briefly noticed the cute way that Francoise’s perfect curls framed her beautiful brown face - returned her grin, stepping in front of her sister. She forced herself not to stare stupidly into her golden eyes.

“Hey Frankie … wanna go on an adventure?”

Francoise’s squeak of excitement sounded remarkably like boiling tea in a kettle. 

***

Necessarily, the trio’s adventure began with a trip to Grifffy’s paddock, on top of a hill behind Hexside. The lock on the gate of Griffy’s paddock lay in two smoking halves on the ground, but there were no footprints.

“Whoever stole Griffy probably flew him out,” Edalyn theorized, inspecting the inside of the paddock. “If people from Glandus stole him, like Frankie suggested, it had to be at least like six of them. I couldn’t levitate a griffon while invisible by myself, so no way in Hell someone at Glandus could.”

Privately, Lilith was glad that Edalyn had, finally, admitted to not being invincible. With some bitterness, though, she noted that while Edalyn was upset she couldn’t levitate a griffon while invisible, she couldn’t levitate anything  _ or _ turn invisible. 

“There is one problem with your theory, sister: only super advanced witches can fly. Not even you can.” Yes, not even the great Edalyn was invincible. Not that Lilith was jealous. Nope. “Is it possible for Glandus High to have six witches who can fly while Hexside has none?”

“Yeah … you’re right, Lilith …” Edalyn nodded. “Yo Frankie, any ideas?”

Frankie was … preoccupied. That is, if spinning around with one’s arms out while giggling and snickering counted as preoccupied. “Oh Titan, oh Titan, yes, yes, YES, I’m on an adventure with Lilith and Eda, this is so freaking cool! Huh?”

Lilith stifled a giggle. It seemed rather rude to laugh at her lack of propriety, despite how downright adorable it seemed.

“Having fun, huh?” Edalyn deadpanned, eyebrow quirked.

“Oh, right,” Francoise said, a bit apologetically. “Uh, maybe they flew out of here on Griffy’s back, instead of flying with their own power. The only problem is how did - that crack in the ground form?”

Wait what? Lilith looked to where Francoise pointed and saw a chunk of ground sticking out from the soil.

“See how this big chunk of earth juts out from the ground? Land doesn’t slide uphill,” Francoise said, kneeling down to closely examine . “Bug there’s a small ridge right here in the ground, like there was an earthquake. And look here!” She pointed at the roots, exposed due to how the ground had shifted. “These are the wrong roots for the plants here: I can sense that they’re way thicker than roots for grass, but there are no trees or anything for a while.”

Edalyn beat Lilith to the punch: “So maybe … they manipulated and shifted the roots to open up a tunnel underground, then snuck Griffy out that way. Frankie, you’re a genius!”

At that, Francoise jumped in the air, clapping her hands together. “Thanks, Eda! Oh my gosh, Edalyn Clawthorne called me a genius, this is  _ amazing _ .”

With her skyrocketing body heat, and the way that the sunlight turned Francoise’s curls a shimmering gold, and the way Francoise’s sweet, bright smile ensnared the senses, Lilith didn’t quite notice her sister nudge her.

“She’s so wonderful…” Lilith said, a little too loudly.

“Hey, idiot.”   


“H-huh? What’s up?” Was it getting hot outside or something? Lilith could’ve sworn the temperature was supposed to be dropping this week.

“I have a question: how long can you go without checking Frankie out?”

“W-what kind of question is that?!?” It definitely had to be getting hotter outside: Lilith’s entire body felt like it was on fire. 

“Lilith … you’re bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuushing …”

Surely either spontaneously disappearing or suicide would be an acceptable action in these circumstances.

“...Hey Frankie, open the ground with your plant magic would ya okay thanks!” Lilith said, all too quickly and all too loudly.

“Sure thing, Lilith!” Bounding over, she knelt down on the ground, and touched the lawn with one hand. The ground began to quake, as the ridge became larger and taller … no, that wasn’t right: the roots were growing taller and stronger and thicker and they were pushing the ground up. Then the quaking stopped and Lilith saw a deep, dark tunnel in the hole. The walls of the tunnel were thick and shiny with moist vines.

Francoise was right. The thieves, whoever they had been, had created a tunnel through plant magic, shoveling and pushing the soil with vines that formed the walls of a pathway.

Francoise gave a little gasp of excitement and made, in Lilith’s admittedly biased opinion, the cutest smile ever seen on a witch. “I did it!” she exclaimed, before yanking Lilith off the ground with a hug. Her face again burning, Lilith was ecstatic - not simply because the most popular and prettiest girl at Hexside was hugging her, but because said girl couldn’t see Lilith making what had to be the most ridiculous expression known to witchkind. Indeed, judging from how an increasingly purple and splotchy Eda seemed on the verge of bursting a lung from holding in her laughter, Lilith’s face had to be even redder than her hair.

Francoise let go of a blushing, foggy-brained Lilith and bounded down into the tunnel, yelling “SECRET TUNNEL! SECRET TUNNEL!” as she went. Still in a daze, Lilith drunkenly spun around in place until she faced Edalyn. There was no need for words. Edalyn’s smirk screamed smugness.

Lilith gulped. “...Is it that obvious?”

“Is water wet?”

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggghhhhhhh.” Lilith facepalmed. “God, I’m so stupid.”

“Heh, took you long enough to figure that one out,” Edalyn snickered. She took Lilith by the hand and pulled her into the tunnel, their shoes sinking slightly into the cold, wet earth. “C’mon, we can’t let your girlfriend go running off into danger alone.”

“You’re right … WAIT EDALYN SHE’S NOT MY -”

“Hey, Lilith, what are you yelling about?” Francoise stuck her curly, pretty head around a viney corner. She’d cast a light spell that perfectly illuminated her features.

“...IMPROV! Yeah, we’re practicing an improv show, Edalyn and I are! Yep, that’s … that’s what we’re doing. Ahem: ‘WAIT EDALYN SHE’S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND DUN DUN DUN YOU’VE GOT IT ALL WRONG MY FRIEND DUN DUN DOO NA DA, yeah!’ It’s a - it’s a work in progress, but so we, uh, we figured we should practice it - whenever we could.”

“...You’re doing this  _ now _ ?”

“Yup! We just … we really care about improv!”

Ironically, Lilith noted, she probably  _ should _ work on her improvisation skills. 

“Okay…” Francoise shrugged toned shoulders, but turned and continued down the corner.

To Lilith’s immense relief, the trio walked through the tunnel in relative

Edalyn cleared her throat. “Y’know, Lily, I get it. She is nice and smart and pretty, I see why you like her. But like … she’s not some goddess. She’s just a big dork. And she really likes us and thinks we’re cool. You don’t … have to be intimidated by her, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“She’ll find someone else, someone who’s actually worth her time,” Lilith sighed.

“You’re worth her time, c’mon! Just grow some balls and talk to her.” Edalyn shoved her forward, nearly sending her crashing into Francoise’s back.

“Hey Lilith, what’cha doing?” Francoise said in a chipper tone, seemingly unconcerned.

“Er, nothing, just, uh, just falling!” (Falling for you, her mind filled in inevitably.) “Er, um, mind if I ask you something, while we go deeper down into this, er, dank tunnel?”

“Sure thing, Lily!” Lilith’s internal organs did a little jig at her new nickname. “What’s on your mind?”

“...You’re so happy and silly and cute, er, I mean, uh, like how a kid or a baby animal is, uh, cute … just forget I said that.” Thank Titan Edalyn was out of earshot for that one. “But you’re so aloof and cocky when Odalia’s around? What’s up with that?”

For once, Francoise looked rather embarrassed. “Oh … that,” she said, looking away slightly, her voice slower. “Well … here’s the thing. I’m on the Plants track, but my parents are worried about career opportunities. They said I could stay on the track if I learned something about Abominations, just in case I wasn’t able to get a job with Plants.”

Lilith nodded. “So Odalia’s your tutor?”

“Yeah. You can probably tell she’s not really the … warm and fuzzy type, and I’m not super great at Abominations stuff anyways. So, when I’m around her, I try and act more mature, so she’ll put up with me and won’t stop being my tutor.”

Lilith was aghast. “She’d quit being your tutor just because you’re a bit …,” she struggled to think of the right word, “eccentric?”

“You’re not surprised, are you?”

“...Okay, fair enough. Sucks, though.”

“Yeah…I wish I knew someone nicer who could help me, though. She’s a bitch, but she’s still really smart, you know?”

Lilith opened her mouth and, foolishly, naively, nearly offered to help. She stopped herself. Beating Odalia didn’t mean she was especially good at abominations. With a lurch of the stomach, Lilith realized something far worse, far more upsetting: beating Odalia didn’t even mean she was especially good at magic. Really, Odalia had beaten her, utterly: she’d captured Lilith using a technique she had never seen before. If not for her arrogance, Odalia would’ve walked home the victor, leaving an unconscious Lilith on the Grudgby field.

“Yeah … I know,” Lilith said, depression staining every word.

Francoise seemed to recognize Lilith’s state. However, before she could speak, the ground began to rumble.

A deep voice bounced across the cave walls, crashing against Lilith’s eardrums: “HOO HA HOO HA HOO HA”, it repeated.

“Ugh … guys?” Edalyn honked a few feet behind Lilith. “What the hell is happening?”

“I dunno …” Lilith said. “But I think it might have something to do with--”

“PEONS!” the voice boomed. “RODENTS! IMPS FROM THE SO-CALLED HEXSIDE ‘SCHOOL’ OF MAGIC AND DEMONICS! YOU HAVE VENTURED FAR AND WIDE TO OUR SECLUDED LAIR! SAY YOUR PRAYERS, MINDLESS FOOLS, FOR YOU WILL NOT LEAVE THIS CAVE ALIVE!”

So this is what half an hour of walking had brought them: tinnitus. This was the first and worst adventure Lilith had ever gone on.

As if the ringing in the ears and sore feet weren’t unpleasant enough, the students of Glandus High decided to add blindness to the list of ailments they’d inflicted on the trio: the cave became as bright as the sun. Blinking and squinting through practically incinerated retinas, Lilith the cave room was more akin to an empty colosseum: the room was a circle, with thousands of empty seats overlooking the cave floor. 

“HEXSIDIANS,” the disembodied voice portentously (and annoyingly) continued, “WE, THE SUPERIOR STUDENTS OF GLANDUS HIGH, HAVE KIDNAPPED YOUR ANIMAL, ‘GRIFFY’, TO LOWER YOUR MORALE BEFORE THE NEXT GRUDGBY GAME! IF YOU WISH TO SEE THE CREATURE KNOWN AS ‘GRIFFY’ ALIVE AGAIN, YOU WILL HAVE TO COMPLETE THREE CHALLENGES.”

“Well, any chance that this entire experience wouldn’t be a hackneyed nightmare just went down the toilet,” Lilith said drily.

Edalyn, a shockingly smug grin plastered on her face, sauntered towards the center of the room. “Bring it on,” she drawled. “I’ll do all three challenges by myself!”

That arrogance was uncalled for. Edalyn was in the presence of two other great witches, after all. “She means that  _ we’ll _ do all three challenges,” Lilith said, taking Francoise by the hand to stand shoulder to shoulder (or, more accurately, shoulder to chin) with Edalyn.

“Okay, fine,” Edalyn conceded. “I’ll do the three challenges and I’ll let these two goofballs try and keep up.” 

Strangling her would be too lenient.

At any rate, the disembodied voice let out a malicious, rumbling chuckle. “VERY WELL,” it exclaimed. “YOUR FIRST CHALLENGE … SLAY THE PHOENIX … sorry, what was that? … uh huh? … okay, sorry, SORRY, THE PHOENIX SWALLOWED A STONE AND CHOKED TO DEATH LAST WEEK.”

This was Hexside’s most infamous rival. It was almost sad.

“NOW, WHERE WAS I? OH YES! YOUR FIRST OF NOW TWO CHALLENGES … DEFEAT THE GIANT GIRDER!”

“...Pardon?” Francoise squeaked.

“GIRDER. LIKE … TAKE THE FIRST SYLLABLE OF ‘GIRAFFE’ AND THE SECOND SYLLABLE OF ‘SPIDER’, IT’S PRONOUNCED LIKE ‘JERR-DER” BECAUSE … YOU KNOW WHAT, SCREW IT, I’M JUST GONNA SHOW IT TO YOU.”

With that, a hole in the floor opened up and out crawled a rather strange looking creature. It had both the horned head and long neck of a giraffe, but the body with the size of a truck and the legs of a spider. Literally, as the legs were far too tiny to support its weight and it collapsed into a heap.

“...Hey, I bet even you could take it, huh Lils?” Edalyn snickered.

Lilith would’ve told Edalyn to shut up if she weren’t preoccupied with the long tongue wrapped around her waist. It yanked her skidding across the ground at a million miles per hour, until finally it thrust her, kicking and screaming, high into the sky. She looked down below to see the giraffe’s gaping maw, somehow open wide enough to swallow her whole.

“YOU FOOL!” the disembodied voice bellowed. “A NORMAL GIRAFFE HAS A TONGUE LONG ENOUGH TO CLEAN ITS OWN NOSTRILS! A GIRDER’S TONGUE, HOWEVER, IS JUST AS LONG, RETRACTABLE AND STICKY AS A SPIDER’S WEB! NOW, GINGER-HEADED ONE, YOU SHALL BE SLOWLY EATEN AND DIGESTED BY THE TERRIFYING GIRDER!”

Well. There were certainly worse ways to die. It was hard to think of any, but that was probably because Lilith’s mind was preoccupied with counting the many hundreds of dagger-like teeth about to rip her to shreds. 

Before Lilith could think of any last words to say, though, massive tree trunks of vines wrapped the girder’s mouth shut. The tongue let Lilith go, and she bounced onto the creature’s body, rolling to the ground.

“Nice one, Frankie!” Edalyn said a million miles away, as Lilith blinked stars out of her eyes. A fwoosh sound, accompanied by a rush of heat and a scream of pain, told her that Edalyn had flung a fireball into the girder.

Lilith got up and shot an icicle at the girder. It dodged. Lilith burned its web, shot from its mouth, to ash with a fireball.

“It shoots webs from its mouth!” she screamed at Francoise, bolting to stand next to her. The beast got to its feet.

The disembodied voice snarled, “KILL THEM!”

That was all the encouragement the monster needed: it shot its balls of webs at Francoise and Lilith. Lilith prepared a fireball, but Francoise was faster. She grew vines, each one the size of a tree trunk, out the soil. Each one caught a tooth in mid-air and flung it back. The girder opened its mouth and chomped on the webs.

“I got this sis!” Edalyn yelled. 

Where was Edalyn? 

Lilith was next to Francoise but her sister was nowhere to be found. 

The disembodied voice “DAMMIT, FLUFFY! THE SHORT ONE HAS TURNED INVISIBLE, SNIFF HER OUT!”

...Fluffy. Could this day get any weirder?

As if to answer Lilith’s question, an utterly massive bubble of water, even bigger than Fluffy, appeared out of nowhere, bubbling and spinning and dripping in mid-air. The bubble turned into dozens of ice shards, which rained down and pinned Fluffy to the ground by its hairs.

Fluffy, however, stood up, leaving the hairs on its legs pinned to the ice shards. It belched forth a ball of web, twice the size of its body. Lilith closed her eyes as the web ball bulldozed through Francoise’s vines and sent them into the wall. Gasping for air, Lilith opened an eye to see Fluffy, albeit slowly, moving towards them.

“F-francoise, I mean, Frankie…” Lilith tried to get the jock’s attention. “Where’s Edalyn?”

As if on cue, Edalyn, still invisible, taunted, “Is that all you got? Lemme make things easier for you!”

She appeared, her back to Lilith and Francoise, facing Fluffy down.

The voice laughed again. “IDIOT! YOU GAVE UP YOUR ONE ADVANTAGE OVER FLUFFY! YOUR ARROGANCE HAS DEFEATED YOU, BRAT!”

Fluffy shot another web ball, the same size that caught Francoise and Lilith. Edalyn flicked a fireball with one finger. A collision later, the web ball was reduced to smoking bits of ash raining down on the ground. Edalyn snapped her fingers, conjuring tendrils of water that wrapped around Fluffy’s mouth and froze it shut.

“I think you forgot something,” Edalyn boasted, slowly turning on the spot. “I am Eda Clawthorne, the greatest witch who has ever lived! When I said I could handle all three of your little challenges by myself, I meant it!”

Francoise whistled. “Wow, your sister’s pretty incredible, isn’t she?”

Lilith blinked wet eyes. “Heh, yeah. She is…”

Unbeknownst to Edalyn, those three sentences hit Lilith with a depressing note of finality. Edalyn really was the best. There was nothing Lilith could do about it.

Smirking as usual, Edalyn turned to where Lilith and Francoise clung to the wall and destroyed the web trapping them with a fireball. The two landed on their feet.

“Lilith … kick its ass, would ya?” she said.

Oh. Lilith, why don’t you defeat the monster that’s far too powerful to pose much of a threat to me? It might even be a challenge to you.

Damn it all to hell, Lilith would show her sister how powerful she truly was.

Growling, Lilith clenched a fist and summoned an Abomination two heads higher and far broader than her. It bounded over and punted Fluffy through the ceiling of the cave room.

“Abomination,” Lilith said, voice loud and clear, “find the source of that idiotic voice and then free Griffy. I’m tired of these three challenges.”

“WAIT WHAT?” the disembodied voice cracked. The sound of the voice crack echoing against the cave walls was akin to dunking glass shards into one’s ears. “WAIT DON’T HURT ME I’M JUST A FRESHMAN COME ON I’M NOT EVEN THAT MEAN HELL I DON’T HATE HEXSIDE  _ THAT MUCH _ AND OH CRAP THE ABOMINATION FOUND ME AND OW OW OW OW DAMMIT FUCK OUCH STOP OW HITTING OW ME OW THERE”

Edalyn bounced over, cackling. “Oh my Titan, Lilith, I didn’t think you had it in you!”

Despite how unintentionally condescending that statement had been, Lilith smiled. “Heh, looks like you’re not the only powerful witch in the family.” Perhaps, one day, Lilith wouldn’t have to worry about her younger sister showing her up.

Two muscular arms seized Lilith around the chest and yanked her high into the sky. “You were so cool!” Francoise squeaked. While Francoise was taller than average (Lilith’s chin came to her shoulder) with an athletic build, she wasn’t overly huge. However, it was still amazing how adorably high her voice could become when she was excited.

“T-tell me something I don’t know,” Lilith said, trying Edalyn’s cockiness on for size. She quite liked the feeling, almost as much as she liked Francoise sweeping her off her feet. A giggling Francoise put her down.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were that good with Abominations?” she said, flapping her palms in excitement. “You’re at least as good as Odalia is!”

“...Oh really?” Lilith, her heart racing, guessed where this conversation was going to go, but kept her tone level. She spotted a grinning Edalyn, her face free of any glib sarcasm or arrogance, through the corner of her eye.

“Yeah! In fact, why don’t you tutor me in Abominations work? That is, if you’re not too busy or you’re okay with putting up with me…”

Okay with putting up - OKAY with putting up with her? This was a dream come true for Lilith.

“I’d love to!” For the first, and thankfully not the last, time, Lilith jumped forward and hugged Francoise. It was impossible to tell who's excited squeak was cuter - Francoise or Edalyn. That didn’t matter to Lilith. For now, nothing mattered to Lilith, not even Griffy’s rescue: she failed to notice her Abomination dropping an unharmed but tied up Griffy to the ground. For now, only one thing mattered to Lilith: as weak as she was, the girl she liked thought she was a giant.


End file.
